Belbin & Agosto Retire From Competitive Skating | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Belbin & Agosto Retire From Competitive Skating

Gumdrops

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 18, 2008
I think if they had never left Canton they never would've improved. Say what you will about Linichuk's choreo, but Tanith & Ben's basics and polish really improved under L&K. They made them better skaters if you ask me. Igor/Marina may have the flashier programs, but they never bothered to fix the problems in B&A's skating, even when they started to plateau.

Tanith & Ben feel it was the best move, and I agree. I doubt staying in Canton would've done them any good anyway. Marina clearly already preferred V&M and D&W was Igor's new, young exciting team. B&A would've been 3rd in line over there at best. At least moving to L&K got them another world medal. I think had they stayed at Canton, they would've stayed 4th (or dropped even lower).
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
I think if they had never left Canton they never would've improved. Say what you will about Linichuk's choreo, but Tanith & Ben's basics and polish really improved under L&K. They made them better skaters if you ask me. Igor/Marina may have the flashier programs, but they never bothered to fix the problems in B&A's skating, even when they started to plateau.

Tanith & Ben feel it was the best move, and I agree. I doubt staying in Canton would've done them any good anyway. Marina clearly already preferred V&M and D&W was Igor's new, young exciting team. B&A would've been 3rd in line over there at best. At least moving to L&K got them another world medal. I think had they stayed at Canton, they would've stayed 4th (or dropped even lower).

I agree. They made the right move. In the end it turns out nothing could have completely saved them at that point, and I think it had become clear after the 2008 Worlds that might be the case regardless. They still were more competitive and gave themselves the best chance by going to Linichuk.
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
I feel bad in a way since I feel if D/W had not been pushed over then in the U.S they might have competed at both the 2010 Worlds and 2011 Worlds. They had hinted about a year ago they might go on for another season or so. I think losing their U.S title and ending up 4th at the Olympics was what made them decide to end it right then and there. And like others I saw alot of improvement in their skating since going to Linichuk and think they even still had more to give that we wont see now.

Still true legends of ice dancing, especialy in the U.S. A shame they never got that elusive World title, the sport can be a bit cruel sometimes. They have alot to be proud of though, and all future U.S and even North American dance teams owe them big.
 

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Country
United-States
Tanith & Ben remind me of 2 other couples that just couldn't make it. Naomi L. & Peter T and Bourne & Kratz, seemed like they couldn't get over that next hurdle. It seems like Tanith & Ben hit a peak and it was downhill after that. At the 2002 Worlds, it was commented they were the US new hopefuls. One thing I heard was Ben was a better skater than Tanith, what's your opinion??? If that's the case too bad for him.
 

blue_idealist

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
Tanith & Ben remind me of 2 other couples that just couldn't make it. Naomi L. & Peter T and Bourne & Kratz, seemed like they couldn't get over that next hurdle. It seems like Tanith & Ben hit a peak and it was downhill after that. At the 2002 Worlds, it was commented they were the US new hopefuls. One thing I heard was Ben was a better skater than Tanith, what's your opinion??? If that's the case too bad for him.

B&A always reminded me of B&K too. I think it was the type of programs they skated that sometimes held them back.. pop culture style stuff that was sort of fluffy and fun, and that's what they were good at (B&A's Elvis, Amelie, Cotton Eye Joe.. B&K's Riverdance, Grease, Techno FD, etc.) I know both those teams did try heavier stuff (ex. B&A's Ave Maria, B&K's Adagio), but they didn't pull it off that well.. it didn't seem authentic. I think another similarity between the two teams was that an emotional connection between the partners seemed lacking.. they reached out to the audience instead of toward each other, tried to entertain rather than emote, I guess. Maybe it was because both couples consisted of just friends, not lovers or siblings, but other teams that were just platonic seemed to be able to garner more of an emotional connection on-ice.

Navarro and Bommentre seemed to choose crowd-pleasing, pop-culture stuff too, and that may have hurt their chances, but unlike the other two, seemed to have a connection between them.
 
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ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
B/A came of age as seniors in the 04/05 season, and I sorta feel that the batch of skaters that starting becoming the top tier/challenging thereof (DomShabs, DelSchos, BelAgo, DubLau) were in a difficult position generally. The newcomers were heading onto the senior circuit with more organic knowledge of the new system having not had to transfer into it (as witnessed by V/M and D/W beating B/A on TES pretty much instantly in the 06/07 season, at 4CC and Worlds). DubLau retired after their second silver (and I expect that had they not, V/M would've still eclipsed them, the same way D/W eclipsed B/A), and the D/S's struggled with injury issues that hindered their progress.

The unfortunate thing is that B/A were trying to avoid being pushed down in favour of another team, and with DomShabs joining Linichuk, that's precisely what happened. They got two programs that did nothing to accentuate their gifts (indeed, it played them down) and indeed were pushed down.

My biggest what if? What if, instead of Linichuk, Camerlengo choreographed their programs. He did a beautiful job of Faiella/Scali and Weaver/Poje, and we know F/S did train with Linichuk so there might have been an "in" there. Oh, the things that could've been.
 

blue_idealist

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
I at first thought maybe Linichuk created programs that didn't highlight B&A's style well because she wanted to play them down and play up Domnina & Shabalin, but the programs she created for Domnina & Shabalin weren't the greatest either. Regarding the original dance, that's an understatement, lol.
 
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